The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for the 'Conservatism' Category

June 6, 2011

Revisions/extensions (7:12 pm 6/6/2011) – Bumped to the top with some more registration options specific to Wisconsin. This was originally posted 5/18 at 3:57 pm.

For the fourth year in a row, Americans for Prosperity will be holding its RightOnline Conference at the same time and city as NetRoots Nation, the big lefty online gathering. This time, we’ll be at the Hilton Minneapolis in Minneapolis, Minnesota on June 17 and June 18.

Since the national media will be there to cover both events, we can’t let them give a false impression that all the energy is on the left side of the ‘net. It’s a short drive from just about anywhere in Wisconsin. Come on out and join people like Michelle Malkin, Rep. Michele Bachmann, S.E. Cupp, Erick Erickson, John Fund, Guy Benson, Mary Katharine Ham, Ed Morrissey, and a host of others.

There will also be workshops and panels hosted by experts in their respective fields. The areas of focus will include Online Activism 101, Advanced Online Activism, Tools and Resources, Investigative Reporting/Citizen Journalism, Public Policy Issues, and Grassroots Activism.

Since I’ll be there live-blogging for the third consecutive year, AFP decided to give you the readers of this blog a 25% discount. Just use the promo code fightback when you register, and you will get a 25% discount on the ticket. The promo is good up until June 17, though I can’t guarantee how long the 2-for-1 registration deal (which also is eligible for the discount) will last.

Revisions/extensions (cont.) – While the 2-for-1 deal and the blog-reader discount are still good as of today, the early-registration price of $99 (discounted to $74.25) is gone. That’s been jacked up to a regular price of $119, or a discounted price of $89.25 (or $89.24 for 2 due to rounding). If you can bring a second person up, that makes the registration cost $44.62 per person. Where else do you get 2 days of activism along with two confirmed (Tim Pawlenty, Herman Cain) and one likely (Michele Bachmann) Presidential candidates?

However, AFP-WI has a nice deal for you – big discounts on the double-occupancy and quad-occupancy bus trips, departing early Friday from Kenosha (4 am), Racine (4:30 am), Milwaukee (5:30 am), Waukesha (6:15 am), Green Bay (5:30 am) and Wausau (7:30 am), complete with a Friday-night stay in Minneapolis in either a double-occupancy or a quad-occupancy room. For the double-occupancy rate of $79 per person, enter DoubleBus as the promo code on the bus package registration page, and for the quad-occupancy rate of $49 per person, enter QuadBus as the promo code on the bus package registration page.

February 12, 2011

Before Rep. Allen West (R-FL) went to the stage to close out CPAC, he stopped up on Blog Row to do a quick Q-and-A. He spoke on Egypt, GOProud’s invite to CPAC, the debt ceiling, being the only Republican in the Congressional Black Caucus, and cuts in military spending.

February 11, 2011

CPAC closed out the day session yesterday with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) speaking. He started off by mentioning he is “the other Paul”, and that Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) is a Packers fan, and saying that it’s halftime. He went on to point out that there is now a conservative majority in the House (side note – while he was speaking, the House leadership announced that the return to FY2008 non-security discretionary spending levels would not be pro-rated).

Ryan also noted that the voters back in November want a battle for a singular idea – the American idea. He noted there is a basic difference in the world view between conservatives and liberals.

The quality may not be the greatest (once again, I didn’t hook into the multibox), and I’m sure there’s better quality versions of the speech, but I’ll offer up my copy anyway – CLICK FOR THE RYAN SPEECH

Sorry about the lack of posts yesterday, but as is usual for a conference with a high number of bloggers, the internet was quite sketchy. Oh well; I got a few pics to share with you (you already have Ron Johnson and his speech from yesterday)…

February 10, 2011

My Senator was the second speaker at CPAC this year, following a rousing opening from Rep. Michele Bachmann.

He mostly stuck to the health care issue, beginning with recounting how he got into the race. On the liabilities of the federal government, he mentioned a stat which I hadn’t heard before – while the federal government has $112 trillion in liabilities, the entire asset base of the country is only $73 trillion.

Despite the fact he isn’t a polished speaker, the speech was very good. Click to listen.

February 4, 2011

Fausta has decided to jump into the massive time-consuming wonderful fun of aggregating the best posts from the gang that will be officially blogging at CPAC. Her plans are to do this every evening until we roll into DC next Thursday.

Damn, I wish I had thought of bringing back The Morning Scramble before snowblowing through 5-foot drifts took all the steam out of me for the week; now I don’t have to :-)

December 2, 2010

John Hawkins kicked off the year-end awards with a bunch of us right-of-center bloggers choosing the Conservative of the Year award. Out of the following list of 20 picked by John, the members of the panel picked between 1 and 3 in an unranked order:

Dick Armey/Matt Kibbe

Michele Bachmann

Haley Barbour

Glenn Beck

Andrew Breitbart

John Boehner

David Bossie

Jan Brewer

Scott Brown

Chris Christie

Jim DeMint

Mike Duncan/Karl Rove/Ed Gillespie

Erick Erickson

Pamela Geller

Bobby Jindal

Sarah Palin

Tim Phillips/Phil Kerpen

Marco Rubio

Paul Ryan

Allen West

I’ll make you go over to Right Wing News to see the surprise winner and 5 of the other top 7, but I’ll explain my choices here:

Paul Ryan (who is in the top 7) – Call me a homer if you must, but I’ve been a Ryan supporter even before redistricting put Oak Creek into the 1st Congressional District. John’s profile: “This congressman from Wisconsin became a conservative sensation because of his Roadmap for America’s Future, which was re-released in 2010.”

Erick Erickson – Despite RedState hitting the big time and himself joining CNN as a commentator, Erick continues to take a no-compromises approach. I’ll start with today’s piece pointing out that the Senate “Republicans” didn’t need to cave on START in order to get promises of a temporary continuation of the Bush tax rates.

Tim Phillips/Phil Kerpen – When one’s organization (Americans for Prosperity) is targeted by name by Teh Won multiple times, you know it’s effective.

November 17, 2010

The fact is I completely agree with Jim DeMint. You cannot be a fiscal conservative without being a social conservative and vice versa. The libertine sensibilities of many a fiscal libertarian will lead the country to social ruin causing government spending to bail out society and the spend-thrift nature of many Republican pro-life statists will lead the country to bankruptcy….

Now, I know many of you disagree with that and I cannot persuade you otherwise, but I do think there is common ground in this disagreement. It goes back to the idea of federalism, recognizing it no longer exists, and committing to restore it.

Our founders did not intend, nor did any governing coalition or black robed master at the Supreme Court intend, for this nation to have a national common morality. Unfortunately, in the twentieth-century our black robed masters decided over time that we must.

Ideally in this country, if you want gay marriage and abortion in California you should be able to have it. If I want real marriage and no abortion in Georgia I should be able to have it. And ultimately when California collapses in on itself those of us who upheld the nuclear family can fight over the leftover land.

That is the way the country was designed and intended. The thugocrats at the Supreme Court decided they had a better idea and now you and I must both adhere to a common morality, which over time has favored a secular society of libertine morality, which many of us believe will ultimately cause the destruction of our society. But that’s neither here nor there.

What is here is that whether you are for fiscal or social issues, neither side can afford to shut up when the folks in Washington insist that federalism is out and black robed thuggery and bureaucratic fiat are in.

February 22, 2010

First things first, I have to tip my hat to the host of CPAC, the American Conservative Union, and especially Lisa De Pasquale. They really outdid themselves with this year’s event, especially with sneaking former Vice President Dick Cheney in on Thursday.

I also have to tip my hat to Erick Erickson of RedState. That was simply the best Blog Row that I’ve been a part of – from access to the main hall (we had a balcony in the main hall plus the room behind it) to Internet access (always an issue at an event like this, but far less an issue this time).

If you’re looking for a comprehensive write-up, I must refer you to John Hawkins’ posts from Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3. I’m no good at lengthy write-ups, so my stream-of-consciousness thoughts from earlier in this category will pretty much have to suffice.

The overarching theme of CPAC this year was reducing the size and scope of government. Both the bulk of the speakers and the non-Presidential portion of the straw poll reflected that. The loudest applause lines were when the speakers spoke about slaying the leviathan (shameless plug for a friend, buy Slaying Leviathan: The Moral Case for Tax Reform).

I suppose I have to deal with that straw poll, specifically Ron Paul’s winning of the Presidential portion of it. One of the PaulNut groups brought in a massive amount of people for the purposes of stuffing the box (which closed early Friday afternoon) and hear Paul speak late Friday afternoon. That was reflected in the decidedly-negative reaction from the crowd when the results were announced.

Revisions/extensions (7:13 pm 2/23/2010) – I knew I’d forget somebody, and Moe is the vengeful type (well, not really, but you’ll have to read his wrap-up to get the joke).

February 18, 2010

One of the great things about CPAC is that one meets new great people. Things haven’t even officially started, and DaTechGuy crossed my path. (Un)fortunately, in addition to the fedoras and the cannoli, he brought his camera, and shockingly, it didn’t break with me on the wrong side of it.

Yeah. Then there’s Plan B: Hang out with me in the hotel lobby bar, saunter down to the main ballroom right after the crowd reaches fire-code capacity, then I’ll tell my buddy the security guy that you’re a VIP and — presto! — you’re in like Flynn.

For some reason, Plan B works best when the alleged VIP is an extremely attractive woman. And here’s the thing: Even if Plan B doesn’t work, we just go back to the lobby bar, which is where all the real fun is, anyway.

That’s a Plan B I can get behind.

I wish I had that guide last year, but I lived, overspent, and learned. Catch you on the flip side.

For those of you who haven’t yet made it to CPAC, it is not too late to register. They’ll have Sen. Jim DeMint kick things off, Glenn Beck close things out, and a heap of fun in the middle (and only some of it during the official activities).

For those of you who are young, or at least young at heart, Kevin McCullough and Stephen Baldwin put together XPAC. They’ll have WiFi, the Fox News Strategy Room, games, and all-day/all-night Thursday and Friday activities.

January 31, 2010

For the second year in a row, I’ll be going to CPAC. Though I’m still looking for a new laptop to replace the recently-deceased one (it suffered a broken monitor), I will be on Bloggers’ Row this year, which should mean a few more timely posts.

September 30, 2009

The Claire Booth Luce Policy Institute has created a calendar. OK, so far, who cares! This calendar has a full year of calendar girls (I’m getting interested now). Not only that but it has 12 of the most attractive (OK, maybe Phyllis not so much but…) conservative women as the monthly “pin ups.”

August 26, 2009

Large amounts of talent combined with training and technology have made it reasonably easy to field “good” teams in hockey, football, basketball or baseball. However, it is the rare team that moves beyond good and becomes dominating. The difference between the “good” teams and those that dominate their sport is one thing; killer instinct.

You may not be able to precisely define “killer instinct” but all sports fans know it when they see it. Nobody left a Joe Montana and the Fortyniners game no matter what the score. You knew that Joe was going to play until the last down of the game scoring at every opportunity he had. Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, some years of the Yankees and the Edmonton Oilers with Wayne Gretzy are all examples of athletes and teams that played with “killer instinct”

But, you say, this is a political blog. What’s going on with the sports analysis?

As with sports, politicians are separated by the ability to have a “killer instinct.” Look at Norm Coleman against Al Franken. Ahead in the polls until he decided to side step ANWAR, vote for the stimulus and decide that he no longer wanted to run a “negative campaign” even though he had done that from day one until they day he changed with 6 weeks left. Norm is the perfect example of a politician who not only didn’t have a killer instinct, he showed he had little political instinct of any kind.

The race between John McCain and Barack Obama also came down to killer instinct. One had it and one didn’t. You can probably figure out which was which.

Anyone paying attention can see that the health care plan is on the ropes and cap and trade may well be on life support. The public, across all demographics except the extreme loons, are responding to polls with the equivalent of “I didn’t vote for Obama!” We see early contests in Virginia and New Jersey showing polls that seem to support a significant and sudden swing towards Republicans. Everything is pointing towards a significant resurgence for Republicans. The question is, do they have the killer instinct?

Unlike the left who has never had any concern about “rubbing their nose in it” when winning, Republicans seem to have an inbred need to be liked by the other side. The result is that when they get a chance to gain ground, Republicans often feel the need to “compromise” to allow the other side the ability to save face.

The Republicans (I use this term generically and certainly don’t mean all people who run under that banner) have gained ground, not through their own actions. Rather, the Republicans are gaining in popularity mostly because in a two party system, they are the only other option. While the Republicans benefit from being “the only other choice” today, I wouldn’t be betting my house on it sticking. Based on the fact that a large portion of the general population are revolting against their political masters I think there is a fair chance that a “throw all the bums out” mentality takes hold if the Republicans look to cave on health care or once again become Democrat lite.

You don’t think the Republicans could be that dumb again right? Wrong!

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, a Michigan Republican Representative, has introduced a bill that would provide a $3,500 deduction for “qualified pet care expenses.” The Representative is concerned of family hardships as a result of pet care costs during this time tough economic time.

How can any clear headed Republican think that providing a tax deduction for pet care makes sense when A: we have a hellacious deficit already, B: human health care costs are subject to a 7% threshold of adjusted gross income and C: most of the Republicans and the general public are fighting to abolish further government intrusion into health care for people. Does Thaddeus really think there is an urgency of any kind for the government (me and you) subsidizing health care for animals when we don’t want to do it for humans?

A stupid bill like this proves that Thaddeus McCotter does not have the killer instinct! I hope to hell the rest of the Republicans have better political instincts. If they don’t I’ll lead the parade for a third party.

June 1, 2009

A conservative rap video which claims to reflect true conservative values is quickly becoming a cult success and going viral.

“The Young Con Anthem,” created by two Dartmouth students, has received more than 90,000 views and has made it to The Huffington Post, USA Today and a variety of blogs across the political spectrum.

Students David Rufful and Josh Riddle made a rap video which they say was intended to spread the views of the Young Conservatives, a group started by Rufful and Riddle with “a devout mission to spread the love and logic surrounding true conservatism,” according the organization’s Web site.

Rufful and Riddle, both due to graduate in 2012, came to Dartmouth from the Northfield Mount Hermon School, a private school in Massachusetts.

“We didn’t think it would blow up to be this big, but it was kind of a way for us to express a pretty unique view,” Riddle said in an interview with The Dartmouth. “We kind of wanted to spread the love that’s behind the conservative movement.”

“I take the way I want to have relationships and my morals from the Bible and Jesus, the idea of supply side economics from Ronald Reagan and from Atlas Shrugged, “Riddle said in an interview, “obviously, I don’t agree with all of [Ayn Rand’s] religious philosophies, but it’s all about the power of the individual.”

Riddle said his views are “more valid” because of the diverse influences that contribute to his conservatism.

March 3, 2009

I know I’ve been promising this since November, but sometimes procrastination is a good thing. I’ve been able to get the benefit of finding out the first almost-two months of complete Democratic rule in both DC and Wisconsin, as well as the initial Repblican and conservative reactions. Most of what I’ve seen has been, frankly, frightening.

First, what the Democrats have made their big push has been, as expected, a complete rollback of the last 28 years of conservative gains, be they economic, social or governmental. It was not a coincidence that one of the first executive orders signed was an overturning of the ban on funding of offshore abortions. It was not a coincidence that almost $800 billion plus interest was the as-signed cost of the Generational Theft Act, or that a stripping of the work-for-benefits rules adopted in the 1990s was a condition of it. It was not a coincidence that a full reversal of the “Drill here, drill now” moves at the end of the Bush Administration was a top priority of the Department of Interior. It is not a coincidence that a rush to adopt a business-crushing environmental regime that vastly expands the power and role of government is a priority in both Madison and Washington. It is not a coincidence that and the death of school choice and the Qualified Economic Offer (which mandates a minimum 3.8% annual increase in the total teachers’ compensation package in exchange for a no-strike rule) is a priority in Madison.

So, what have Republicans and conservatives do in the face of that? I wish I had good news, but the after-hours discussions around CPAC have disabused me of the hope that we’ve learned anything from the last 2 election cycles. Each of the factions are still trying to push the others out of the conservative coalition.

What made the Reagan and 1994 House revolutions successful was that it combined the economic, governmental, and social conservatives into something resembling a majority. I can’t call either a true majority because neither Ronald Reagan nor Newt Gingrich had both the Presidency and both Houses of Congress, but they had enough force to halt and reverse at least some of liberalism’s overreaches.

That force was singularily lacking in the George W. Bush era. While there was, for a significant part of the term, a Republican majority in both the Presidency and both Houses of Congress, very little of what could be called conservatism came out of there, especially on the governmental side. Consequently, the Republicans lost credibility with all the branches and got summarily tossed out the last 2 elections.

One could claim that the liberals and Democrats cribbed that winning formula of unity. They have, but only to a certain extent. They succeeded only because the conservative coalition got divided. Taken individually, the tenents of conservatism, be they social, economic or governmental, are still winners. In California (yes, THAT California), the voters ignored the intimidation from the Left to reject gay “marriage”. In countless communities, when the true cost of big-government/big-spending referenda was revealed, the referenda went down. This past week, on short notice, thousands showed up to protest the high-tax/high-spend/no-freedom moves of the Democrats.

I need to shift focus to Wisconsin for a moment. While there hasn’t really been a broad-based conservative revolution like there was nationally, both school choice and welfare reform did start here under Tommy Thompson. Like the national GOP slide, the Wisconsin one started with a rejection of governmental conservatism; unlike the national one, where big government slowly crept in, it was an explicit rejection of a clarion call by the party elite.

Speaking of the elite, there has been a lot of attacks on those that aren’t part of the Republican Party insider structure. Whether it was attacks on Sarah Palin for not being an Ivy Leaguer and for standing up to the Alaska pork machine, or attacks on Joe the Plumber for being a more-or-less Average Joe rather than a country-club Big Business owner, or attacks on Rush Limbaugh for trying to get the band back together outside the party power structure, they have distressed me, mainly because I am definitely not part of the structure. Nobody has all the answers, and when somebody is wrong, the wrongs do need to be pointed out, but we need to leave the personal attacks on our own to the Left.

I’ve intentionally ignored the notion that conservatives do a “Whigging” to the GOP. While that may well be the best course of action if we had unlimited time, we don’t. The half-looter threshhold is about to be crossed, the entitlement time bomb is rapidly approaching the point of no return, and the state legislatures that are seated in 2011 will (except in states where the courts usurped that authority) will be the ones that draw the districts for the following decade.

I know we’re not likely to get both the majority of the statehouses and majorities in Congress this time around. Therefore, we have to focus on one of those. Because the 2010 Census, which will be flawed, will decide the shape of the various legislative and Congressional districts and likely control of the various statehouses and Congress for the next decade, that focus must be on the state level.

February 27, 2009

– Listened to a number of Congresscritters in the early morning session before catching up with Kevin Binversie. He may have less blogs in his reader than I do, but he makes the most of them.

– Bailed out for the DC Tea Party at Lafayette Park with Doug Welch, Skye, and a few others, and because I’m the guy with the most Metro experience, I got to be tour guide. We had a few hundred people in, Skye got interviewed by Joe the Plumber, and I hit a trifecta in run-ins: Uncle Jimbo, concretebob (both sporting Don’t Be A Dou’Che shirts) and Michelle Malkin. When I get back to the room and if I am not too hammered, I will have cell-“quality” pics up. The good news is I likely won’t have to do another 26-minute walk; the Metro runs later Fridays and Saturdays.

– I attended a very interesting session on Al Franken and ACORN, which I recorded for a couple people who had other engagements on and around Bloggers’ Row (which makes up for the piss-poor performance on TEMS).

– I was “intercepted” by a few friends while on my way to the official CPAC dinner (note to self: save $550 if you show up next year by not buying the diamond package). It turned into a bloggers’ dinner with Kevin Binversie, Stephen Green, Sean Hackbarth, Melissa Clouthier, Katie Favazza, Fausta Wertz, Rick Moran, and a few others my alcohol-addled brain (more on that in a bit) can’t quite remember. Random question; should I be disturbed that Kevin called me instead of Sean to find out where everybody was?

– Afterwards, most of us ended up back at the Omni’s bar, where I split time between that group and Doug Welch. Eventually, Mary Katharine Ham and then Ace rolled in. No, you’re not going to get what was said from me; I have been bound to silence, and before I tell you, I would have to kill you. However, it was worth missing the last Metro train back to the Carlyle and taking a 26-minute walk back.

Given it’s somewhere around 2:30 Eastern, the first speaker is up at 8 local, and the DC Tea Party in Lafayette Park is at noon, I am calling it a night.

– In addition to Jim, I ran into Justin Higgins. Even though he’s THAT GOOD (good enough to get a Rush Limbaugh mention or two), he’s still amazed that he’s taken seriously as a 19-year-old. Like I said, he is THAT GOOD, so it shouldn’t be a surprise.

– Listened to Paul Ryan open up CPAC. He got a lot of applause, as he was on a roll. One odd thing; he seems to be a bit of a goldbug. I do have audio and pics, but since I’m posting from a borrowed computer and cell coverage is at best spotty, I don’t have a way to pull it off the digital voice recorder and phone (respectively).

– There’s somewhere between 8,500 and 9,000 of us floating here. For those paying attention, that is a record.

February 3, 2009

Following the election of Barack Obama numerous pundits across the left, middle and squishy parts of the right, pontificated that the results of the election proved that Conservatism, especially Reagan Conservatism was dead. The argument was that the American public wanted more government solutions, more regulation, more “fairness” and more social services.

A recent poll by Rasmussen finds results that appears to run contrary to these pontiffs:

Fifty-six percent (56%) of U.S. voters say the Republican Party should return to the views and values of the iconic 40th president of the United States.

The response from Republicans isn’t surprising:

Eighty-five percent (85%) of Republican voters believe a return to the two-term president’s views and values are the road to success. Just eight percent (8%) disagree.

However, responses from unaffiliated voters and Democrats were:

Among unaffiliated voters, 61% say the Republican Party should return to Reagan, while 23% think the party should move away from those values.

Even 29% of Democrats think Reagan is a good role model for the modern Republican Party.

Also surprising, at least if you believe that President Obama had some kind of a mandate to expand government is the following:

Finally, the survey showed that 57% believe that tax cuts are good for the economy while only 17% disagreed.

The findings in this report provide a lot of insight as to why support for the stimulus bill is fading. It should also be something that President Obama takes to heart.

Contrary to what has been whispered to Obama, or what he may believe, about the country wanting to move quickly to the left, it appears that Reagan Conservatism is still alive and well even within the Democrat party.

Can someone please make sure that Mitch McConnell gets a copy of the poll?

To paraphrase Twain: Rumors of Conseratism’s demise have been greatly exaggerated!